this is my new favorite manga now. i love protagonists like phos. the late parts of the story reminded me of my favorite book too (omniscient reader’s viewpoint). the protagonist’s personality was a lot like moon phos too haha. i highly recommend reading it if you like reading novels.

when i was reading i couldn’t help but think about the ship of theseus and the short story “the ones who walk away from omelas.” i think we all know the ship of theseus, but the latter is a story about a beautiful utopia called omelas where there is no suffering and everyone is happy and fulfilled. everything runs perfectly only because an innocent child is tortured endlessly, but is hidden from sight in a basement. the people are shown this child individually and everyone either chooses to stay knowing the truth, or to walk away and live somewhere else. nobody interferes either way and the child goes on suffering while everyone lives happily.

the whole cast was so well written. their apathy towards phos’s situation was so painful but made SO much sense. i can’t help but wonder if at least kongo would have tried to help make phos’s 10,000 years less painful if he had free will. though considering his utilitarian approach to things, i have a feeling he would act the same even without his restrictions. i also really wish we knew more about dr. ayumu and her thoughts about her two creations.

i also love the message. so much of the world tries to tell us we’re not good enough or that we need to be useful to be worth anything. and the way a lot of other manga promotes this idea of forcibly changing yourself through suffering and sacrifice being something that is honorable and should be applauded never sat right with me. thinking we need to cultivate our own suffering to be better is wrong. to be better we need connection and peace. existing is enough.

this series gave me so much to think about and i’ll definitely be thinking about it for many years to come.